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.PEISJ ISrS YL V A.isri A. 
FREEDMEN^S RELIEF ASSOCIATION. 



This Association lias been in existence, thougli originally un- 
der asomewliat different name and with a more circumscribed 
field of action, for the space of two years. It had its origin in a 
public meeting held in this city, in National Hall, on the 6th 
of March, 1862. That meeting was called in response to ap- 
peals made to the people of the North by Commodore Dupont, 
General Sherman, and others, in behalf of the 10,000 liberated 
blacks of South Carolina. The destitution of these people, 
moral and physical, was strongly set forth by eminent speak- 
ers and a committee appointed to devise and execute measures 
for their relief Assuming the name of the " Port Eoyal Ee- 
lief Committee," the gentlemen thus appointed proceeded to 
perform the duties assigned them. They raised money, and 
])archased and forwarded food and clothing sufficient to 
meet the immediate. demands of the people. This done, and 
there being no further pressing need of physical assistance, they 
next turned their attention to the necessity of industrial or- 
ganization, and the means needed for the people's moral and 
intellectual improvement. They therefore selected and sent 
into the field superintendents of labor and well qualified school 
teachers. As the people, under these influences, advanced in 
improvement, and began to earn wages sufficient and more 
than sufficient for their maintenance, the Committee established 
a store among them, to protect them, by the. fair rates at which 
commodities were to be sold, from the extortions of army sut- 
lers and other traders. This store was, as it is still, supported 
by a capital set apart for the purpose, and conducted by a 
gentleman well qualified for the duty. 

The success of each and all of these measures has been com- 
plete. The food and clothing kept the more destitute from 
perishing, while, by awakening in the breasts of all a lively 



sense of gratitude, it made subsequent effort in their behalf 
more effective. The superintendents gave direction to the 
people's industry, forming among them habits of self-reliance, 
and making their labor remunerative to themselves and of in- 
estimable value to the country. The teachers gathered the 
children and unemployed adults into schools, instructing them 
in the rudiments of elementary learning, and inculcating upon 
them lessons of morality, religion, and social order. 

In these measures the Philadelphia Committee acted in concert 
with similar associations in Boston and New York. The enterprise 
thus conducted by these three bodies has been in all respects 
an absolute success. No alms are now dispensed on those islands 
by this or any other association. The freed blacks there, now 
15,000 ip number, are a self-supporting, wealth-producing people. 
They are orderly in their behaviour, and are rapidly rising in the 
scale of intelligence. The able-bodied are serving their country 
as soldiers, while the less robust are making themselves equally 
useful in cultivating the fields. Some of the younger ones, who 
two years ago came into the schools in a condition of absolute 
ignorance, are now competent to take the part of assistant teach- 
ers. The "Philadelphia store," located in the island of St. He- 
lena, has sold in the last eighteen months goods to the amount of 
$30,000. This sum, realized from the sales of a single neighbor- 
hood, indicates the prosperity of the people, while, at the same 
time, it suggests the advantages yet to be derived by the North 
from commercial intercourse with them. The savings of the store 
to purchasers, according to the estimate of the gentleman in charge, 
have been $6000 on the sales reported^ This sum has been that 
much added to the people's ability to buy land ; for it ought to 
be known that the blacks at Port Royal are rapidly becoming 
proprietors of the soil. The Government has granted them pre- 
emption rights at prices not beyond their reach, and the more 
thrifty among them are availing themselves of the opportunity 
thus afforded of becoming planters on their own account. 

While the Committee were thus engaged on the Sea Islands, 
the advance of our arms was opening new fields for similar effort 
in other parts of the country. In the south-west especially, where 
the number of liberated blacks had reached a figure somewhere 









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between one and two hundred thousand, the demand for aid be- 
came especially pressing. To meet this demand, the Port Royal 
Relief Committee determined to enlarge their field of action. 
Changing their name to that of the Pennsylvania Freedmen's 
Relief Association, they called a public meeting, and set forth to 
a crowded audience the new and more enlarged views of the ques- 
^ tion. At this meeting, held in Concert Hall on the 3d of No- 

o^ vember, and presided over by Bishop Potter, strong pictures were 

presented of the destitution of the freed people, and earnest ap- 
peals made in their behalf. To these appeals the audience re- 
sponded, by a resolution unanimously adopted, declaring that 
the people of the North owed it alike to Humanity and to the Go- 
vernment, to aid these enfranchised people to the full extent of 
their necessities, in the trials of their transition state. They also 
declared, by a vote equally unanimous, that a sum of not less 
than $100,000 should be raised by the people of the State to 
carry this resolve into execution. At a later and still larger 
meeting — held in the Academy of Music on the 16th of Feb- 
ruary — Bishop Simpson presiding, similar declarations were made, 
with equal unanimity, and with added emphasis. 

While the Association were thus diffusins; information and 
calling out the sentiment of the people, they were at the same 
time busy raising funds and disbursing them for the purposes 
for which they w^ere intended. They have collected since 
the date of their meeting on the 3d of November, $36,- 
491.08. They have purchased and sent to different parts 
of the South, blankets, shoes, hospital stores, and cloth- 
ing for women and children, to the amount of $18,500. 
These supplies for physical wants they are preparing to follow- 
up, as in the case of Port Royal, with more enduring benefac- 
tions. In addition to the corps of able teachers and assistants, 
nine in number, which they are now maintaining in South 
Carolina, they are selecting and commissioning for new places 
of labor others equally well qualified. In order to concentrate 
their efforts and guard against the evils of too wide a field, the 
Association have concluded to confine their operations in the 
south-west to Middle Tennessee and parts adjacent, especially 
the northern parts of Alabama and Georgia. They have ap- 



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pointed a General Superintendent, whose business it will be — 
making Nashville or some point near that city his centre — to 
organize schools, and locate in charge of them, such teachers 
as may be sent out for that purpose. 

By these and such like means this Association, acting as 
heretofore in conjunction with other bodies of similar charac- 
ter, propose to do for all the Southern States what has already 
been done with so much success for a portion of South Caro- 
lina. If the negroes of the Sea Islands, the lowest in the land 
in point of intellectual and physical condition, can, in a brief 
space of time, be raised into a self-sustaining, law-abiding and 
comparatively well instructed people, the same thing at least 
can be done for the remaining blacks of the South, most of 
whom are of a much more promising character. 

The Penna. Freedmen's Belief Association have raised 
since their organization in March 1862, $10,000 worth of cloth- 
ing and other needful articles — all of which have been distrib- 
uted — and $48,459.69 in money. These supplies of clothes, 
kc, and this amount of money have been collected without any 
expense of commission or salary. And of the entire sum 
raised, with the exception of the balance now in the treasury, 
and a small amount expended in means necessary to the Asso- 
ciation's existence, every dollar has gone direct to the object for 
which it was contributed. 

This account of its history and operations the Association 

respectfully submits to the public, with an earnest request to 

all loyal and humane people for their co-operation and support. 

Contributions to its funds should be sent to E. W. Clark, 

Treasurer, 35 south 3d street ; or, if more convenient, they 

may be left at the rooms of the Association, to be forwarded to 

that gentleman, by whom they will be gratefully received 

and duly acknowledged. 

Stephen Colwell, 

President. 

Ellis Yarkall, 1 B. P. Hunt, 

Recording Sec'y. \ Vice President. 

J. M. McKiM, ■ { 

Corresponding iSec^i/. j 

March l.s7, 1S64. 



pB 1.0.4 



TESTIMONY OF THE CLERGY. 



At a meeting of clergymen without respect to denomination, 
held in Philadelphia on the 25th of February, 1864, the fol- 
lowing resolutions, prepared by a special Committee, were 
unanimously adopted, and having been submitted to others for 
their consideration, received the signatures appended : 

Resolved, That the work of the "Pennsylvania Freedmen's 
Belief Association" is one that commands our heartiest approval. 

Resolved, That the Association itself, concerned as it is with 
interests of the first moment to us as Christian citizens, and 
composed of gentlemen of unquestioned standing in the commu- 
nity, is entitled to our confidence and esteem. 

Resolved, That we commend them and their cause to churches 
of every name throughout the city and State. 

(Here to follow the names.) 



RECEIPT BY THE TREASURER 

OF THE 

PENNSYLVANIA FREEDMEN'S RELIEF ASSOCIATION, 

from Nov. Qth, 1863, until March \st, 1864, 



Jacob 1'. Jones $500 

Mrs. J. Sill 106 

Thomas Ridgway 100 

Through Rev. Mr. Brooks... 100 

Israel Morris 200 

Colonel Crosman 10 

Thomas A. Biddle 1000 

Clement Biddle 300 

Jay Cooke & Co 1000 

James A. Wright 1000 

E. W. Clark & Co 1000 

Henry Cope 1000 

Alfred Cope 1000 

Cope Brothers 1000 

W. R 500 

t^harles Spencer 250 

Mrs. K. W. Clark 100 

Mary W. Clark 100 

J. L. K 25 

Joseph Perot 20 

Furness, Brinley & Co 100 

Cash 100 

Mrs. S. H. Clapp 20 

F. H. Clark 100 

B. H. Bartol 50 

A. Melntyre 50 

C. T. Yerkes 50 

A. Whitney & Sons 1000 

A. Barker 500 

Work, McCouch & Co 100 

A. H. Howell 100 

Jos. F. Page 100 

Thomas B. Wattson 100 

Thomas Kimber 100 

J.Emory Stone 50 

E. T. Shaw 100 

John P. Crozer 1000 

Stephen P. Morris 100 

Charles W. Wharton 50 

Jessup & Moore 500 

Theo. Bliss 200 

S. S. White 500 

Cash 500 

Yarnall & Trimble 250 

A. Manderson.. 50 

McKean, Borie k Co 1000 

M. L. Dawson 250 

M. C. Cope 500 

Frothingham k Wells 50 

John Gibson, Son k Co 200 



A. Campbell 100 

Joseph H. Trotter 50 

Merrick & Son 1000 

W. Sellers k Co 1000 

Sidney Paul 50 

Richard Richardson 50 

John T. Lewis 50 

Saunders Lewis 100 

Cash, T. H. P 250 

C. S. Orura 25 

Sundry small contributions, 92 50 

McAllister & Bro 25 

Rev. Mr. Brooks.. 50 

W. D. Bell 50 

Mrs. W. R. Palmer 100 

Jos. D. Brown 100 

Mary D. Brown 100 

B. C 100 

Henry C. Davis 25 

Tredick, Stokes & Co 500 

Dillwyn Parrish 50 

Isaac Barton 50 

S. Morris Wain 1000 

Benjamin Sharp 25 

T. C. Henry k Co 50 

Lowber & Ralston 50 

E. J., trom Pleasantdale 5 

A. A. Kouigmacher 100 

R. B. Cabeen 100 

Samuel C. Morton 100 

Morris, Wheeler & Co 250 

Brown, Hill & Co 100 

Henry B. Benners 50 

Cash! 25 

C. Sherman & Son 20 

Dr. May 10 

J. B. Moorhead 50 

J. W. Heins , 5 

Randolph & Jeuks 200 

Atherton Blight 500 

John W. Field 50 

Jos. B. Townsend 50 

J. T. Cause 300 

Samupl Harlau, Jr 300 

John T. Gilpin 20 

R. & W. C. Biddle & Co 300 

J. Edward Farnum 100 

Benjamin Homer 50 

J. E. Caldwell & Co 100 

Smith k Raadolph 75 



8 



Cash 50 

W. D. Cope 100 

Cash 25 

Thomas P. Stotesbury 50 

Edward S. Buckley 100 

M. & A : 100 

W. B. C 100 

A. H. C 100 

Field & Keehmle 100 

James Graham & Co 100 

John A. Brown.. 500 

W. H. Ashhurst 100 

R. H. Downing ; 50 

A. M. Jones 25 

McGallum & Co 100 

William McCallum 100 

Miss Mifflin 5 

Miss E. Mifflin 5 

Mary Richards 10 

Horstman & Sons 100 

Cash 20 

C. & H. Borie 100 

Bowen & Fox 50 

Joshua W. Woolston 50 

R. D. W 50 

W. H. Trotter 200 

Wain, Learning & Co 50 

Henry J. Williams 250 

S. R. Shipley 25 

Collected by J. M. McKim... 57 

Reuben Winslow 10 

Limerick Bridge 5 

Israel W. Morris 250 

Alex. Whilldin & Sons 100 

Reuben Winslow 50 

J. H. Yarnall and others 9 

Samuel Parry 100 

J. S. Lovering, Jr 50 

M. W. Baldwin & Co... 1000 

Thomas Mott 500 

Edwd. N.Wright 100 

Henry Winsor 500 

Cash from sundry persons... 23 

S.Colwell 100 

Through Rev. Mr. Brooks... 25 

Henry C.Lea 50 

A. B. C 20 

Lindley Smyth 300 

E. S. Whelen 100 

Mrs. W. Bucknell 100 

Abigail Goodwin 5 

Benjamin Bullock 50 

Rev. J. Gordon Maxwell 5 

M. H 5 

Thomas Garrett 50 

Farnham, Kirkham & Co 250 

C. L.C 5 

A. G. C 25 

Redwood Warner 100 

Henry Blackaller 5 



50 



Geo. D. Parrish & Co 500 

Educational 100 

S. L 100 

F. R. Legee 50 

Samuel Bettle 50 

Robert L. Johnson 100 

T. J. Megear 100 

C. D. Cleveland 25 

E. S. G 50 

Richard Sharp 50 

Bethany Jlission for Colored 

Children 5 

R. N. Rathbun 250 

George F. Tyler 250 

L. Audenried & Co 250 

Davis Pearson 100 

Joseph Lea 25 

Church of the Crucifixion, 

per Rev. J. R. Moore 15 

A. W. R 30 

John Skirving lo 

C. D. Cooper 20 

Daniel Neall 300 

Collection Presbyterian and 

United Pres. Churches, 

Gilgal, Ind Co., Pa 87 

Billings, Roop & Co , 50 

James S. Cox 100 

Joseph Mendenhall 10 

Moravian Ch., Nazareth, Pa. 17 

Rev. Geo. Morris 40 

John S. Haines 100 

John Ashhurst 100 

T. Kimber, Jr 125 

Thos. Kimber, Jr., (second 

contribution)., 125 

A Member of Christ Church, 

Brownsville, Pa., per Rev. 

J. F. Ohl n> 

Miss Mary Boyd 20 

S. Flanagan 200 

A. G. Cattell & Co 200 

E. A. Souder & Co 100 

Frederick Brown 50 

H. G f' 

P. P. Randoloh SO 

Mary D. Brown, Trustee 500 

Sharp, Weiss & Co 100 

B. P. Hunt 100 

Miss N. B. Peters 50 

Mrs. S. Peters 50 

J. F. G 25 

Mrs. Bowie 100 

Mrs. L. R. Ashurst 50 

Through Rev. Mr. Brooks.... 40 
For the Cherokee Indians — 

sundrv contributions 155 



5 



36,491 00 



E. W. CLARK, 
Treas. Penna. Freedmen's Relief Association. 




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